GLP-1 pioneers share $3 million Breakthrough Prize for work behind semaglutide

Five scientists who discovered and characterized the gut hormone GLP-1 and helped turn it into medicines share the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the Breakthrough Prize Foundation announced April 5 in Los Angeles ^[1][2]. The laureates are Daniel J. Drucker, Joel Habener, Jens Juul Holst, Lotte Bjerre Knudsen and Svetlana Mojsov ^[1][2].

The prize recognizes work that led to drugs for diabetes and obesity, including semaglutide, sold as Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus ^[1][2]. The foundation described the five researchers' "complementary contributions – from basic hormone discovery through physiological understanding to pharmaceutical development" as ushering in a new era of GLP-1 medicines for cardiometabolic disorders ^[1].

The research stretched over decades. In the 1980s, Habener, then at Massachusetts General Hospital, was studying glucagon when his lab cloned the gene for it and found that it also encoded a related hormone later called GLP-1 ^[2]. Mojsov, also at MGH at the time, knew glucagon's sequence well, recognized a similar active region in GLP-1, and made antibodies against the hormone's active form, which she and Habener used to detect the peptide in rat intestines ^[2]. Drucker, a postdoctoral fellow in Habener's lab, used GLP-1 that Mojsov had synthesized to show the active form could stimulate insulin release from rat pancreas ^[2]. At the University of Copenhagen, Holst and colleagues isolated GLP-1 from pigs and found it increased insulin secretion from the pancreas ^[2]. Teams at MGH and Copenhagen then independently tested supplemental GLP-1 in people and found that the active form stimulated insulin secretion and lowered blood glucose ^[2].

By the 1990s, researchers had found that injecting GLP-1 into rats reduced their appetites, suggesting the hormone might also treat obesity ^[2]. The obstacle was that GLP-1 stayed in the blood for only a few minutes ^[2]. Knudsen, a pharmaceutical scientist at Novo Nordisk, tested whether adding fatty acids to the peptide would make it more stable. That work led to liraglutide, a once-daily GLP-1 analog, and further chemical changes produced semaglutide, which is given once a week ^[2]. Semaglutide has been sold under the brand names Ozempic, Rybelsus and Wegovy since its FDA approval in 2021 ^[2].

Knudsen said she never expected to receive academic prizes as an industry scientist and called the award a team effort: "When you see a success story like GLP-1, there are multiple inventors" ^[2]. Mojsov described the moment the drug potential became clear: "I remember both of us looking at the data, and we looked at each other and said, 'Well, this is going to be a drug'" ^[2].

The Breakthrough Prize, often called the "Oscars of Science," is funded by founding sponsors including Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Julia and Yuri Milner, and Anne Wojcicki ^[1]. Six prizes of $3 million each were awarded this year across life sciences, fundamental physics and mathematics, for a total of $18.75 million, bringing the amount given over the prize's 14 years to more than $326 million ^[1]. The five GLP-1 laureates share one of those prizes; how they divide the money has not been disclosed ^[1].

Why it matters for patients

The award points to how long the path ran from a laboratory finding to the medicines patients now use. GLP-1 was first identified as a gut hormone that stimulates insulin production, and later work showed it also plays a role in appetite and energy balance ^[1]. A more stable version of the hormone, one that keeps acting in the body for days rather than hours, is what made a practical drug possible ^[1].

For people taking semaglutide, or weighing whether to start, the prize does not change what these drugs are approved to treat in the United States. Research into other uses is still early: scientists have reported early data on GLP-1-based drugs for cardiovascular disease, addictive disorders and neurodegenerative disorders, which the reporting describes as early findings rather than established uses ^[2]. No new FDA approvals or label changes were announced alongside the prize, and the award covers laboratory and drug-development work that is already complete.

The prize also reflects the mix of academic labs and industry that produced these drugs. Knudsen, the Novo Nordisk researcher, noted that a success like GLP-1 has "multiple inventors" ^[2], and Mojsov said the field leaves room for the two worlds to work together: "We can lead each other. There are a lot of very interesting questions ahead of us" ^[2].

What the prize money means for future GLP-1 research has not been reported ^[1].